


The End and The Beginning

by kitkat1003



Series: Animaniac Attack [4]
Category: Animaniacs
Genre: Angst, Gen, Harm to Children, Hurt No Comfort, Save them, Yeah it's weird, also dark, author thinks about the implications of word phrasing in this show, i got distressed writing it so buckle up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:55:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27769381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkat1003/pseuds/kitkat1003
Summary: ‘The final episode has aired.  The movie has been filmed. They’re done.  And Yakko has never been more terrified.(Or, the author thinks about the implications of the word “reanimated”, the use of a grave in the new intro as a place for the Warners to pop out of, the fact that the Warners had 0 clue about the last 22 years, and the abrupt nature of the 1993 show’s finale)Quick note, uh, I don’t usually put trigger warnings, but this a pretty distressing fic, I think moreso than my usual?  So like....buckle up.
Relationships: Dot Warner & Wakko Warner & Yakko Warner
Series: Animaniac Attack [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030104
Comments: 52
Kudos: 572





	1. Do You Feel the Warmth of the Sun?

**Author's Note:**

> Listen if I had to think it up you all have to know it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They sleep.
> 
> They wake up.

They’re running as the slideshow rolls, as the other characters disappear one by one. The studio isn’t expecting the side characters to come back, so they can go on with their lives, however boring they are without filming, but them? The Warners are, evidently, too chaotic and unpredictable to be allowed to stick around. And since keeping them locked up in the water tower didn’t really work, and the idea of a reboot or even a continuation seems slim to none, they’re being....

What did the executives say? Oh, right. _Put down._

“C’mon, c’mon!” Yakko yells behind him. He has longer legs, so he can run faster, and his siblings are lagging. He can hear the guards coming closer- _it’s been outsourced, it’s not Ralph or Dr.Scratchansniff or Hello Nurse, it’s large men in scary outfits and_ _ **nets** and **tasers** and **batons**_ -and so he slows down, grabs his siblings by the scruffs of their necks, and keeps running.

“They’re gonna _kill_ us!” Dot all but shrieks, and he can feel her terror, and he’s just as scared. He doesn’t know how this whole suspended animation thing goes, but it sounds a lot like death and he doesn’t like it one bit.

“Not on my watch,” he replies, hoping he sounds braver and more sure than he is.

Wakko tosses a few sticks of dynamite over his shoulder to slow their chasers down, and they weave through the studio towards the exit and out into the city. If they lay low for a few days, they can sneak back into their tower and hole up there for as long as they need. They’ve gotten used to it. It’s home. They can stay. It’ll be fine.

Wakko whimpers, quietly. He’s curled up as tight as he can, knees hidden in his sweater as Yakko holds him close. Dot is much the same. Her flower has lost its petals in the mad dash to escape, but she doesn’t bother to complain.

Yakko can hardly breathe, he’s been running so fast, but adrenaline keeps him going. He can’t let them get his siblings, he can’t let his siblings get taken, get hurt. He’s their big brother.

“It’s gonna be okay,” He gasps out between breaths, between strides. “We got ‘em beat. They’ve never messed with the Warners before, they can’t handle us,” The _world_ can’t, that’s why they’re being thrown away, _permanently._

“Uh, I don’t think the dynamite worked,” Wakko pipes up, and Yakko hazards a look behind him and nearly trips in terror. They’re _so close!_

“Try some more! I can’t reach into my hammerspace right now!” Wakko throws road tacks, the ones that stop cars, and he throws oil and a match, and grease, but the apparent _task force_ hired just gets through obstacle after obstacle as if it were nothing.

Yakko gives them the what for, ducking around a corner at the last second to look like he was going towards another corner, and he doesn’t even allow himself to breathe, so quiet it’s chilling, but he hears a shuffle from the side away from the street they were running on.

“Gotcha,” He hears, and Dot screams, and they’re somehow in the alleyway, and he runs across the street with utter abandon, too scared to think, and suddenly they’re at a dead end.

“Shoot-uh-I-,” He can see the men running across the street after them, and so he jumps, aiming for the rooftop.

He gets yanked down by his tail, and lets out a cry of pain, kicking the hand off of him as all three of them tumble to the asphalt and he loses purchase of his sibs. He scrambles to his feet, pushing Wakko and Dot behind him and facing the monsters that have been hired to hurt his family with a growl. His tail aches. 

Yakko isn’t a fighter, not by a mile. He isn’t that strong, isn’t that talented, in that regard. He has his words, but that isn’t useful right now. 

He pulls out a mallet, the largest one he can muster, and holds it up high.

“Stay back,” he can feel Dot and Wakko trembling, they’re clinging to his legs. The men are wreathed in shadows so he can’t see their faces, and it adds to the mounting fear and helplessness. “Or-Or I’ll use this!”

They come closer. Yakko’s hands shake.

“I’m warning you!” He shouts, stronger than he feels. “Not one more step!” 

They come closer. He swings.

An a cuff clicks around his wrist, and the mallet vanishes.

“What-,” and he’s yanked forward, held back as they close in on Wakko and Dot. “No! Let _go!_ ” He kicks and writhes, but he can’t get anything to appear. The cuff on his wrist hums a noxious green, and he stares at it for a second before continuing to struggle.

“Toon power cancelling cuffs,” The apparent leader says, from behind him. “We don’t use em too often because they don’t work for forever, since you can’t really stop a toon from being a toon for too long, but they’ll work long enough for this job.”

“ _NO!_ ” Yakko screams. Wakko is swinging a bat around, pushing Dot behind him despite her protests. She pulls out a weapon too, her mace, and holds it in trembling hands.

“Don’t take them-just take me! I’ll go quiet, they can hide out in the water tower! They’ll be good, please, no one will know! You can say you lost them, you can-please- _don’t_!” He’s begging. He can’t let this happen to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s him, they’re what matters. He needs them to be safe.

“Yakko, _shut up!_ ” Dot shouts back, and she sounds _furious._ Her glare softens with fear as she glances between the many adults looming over them.

They’re outnumbered. Their eldest has been caught. Wakko keeps swinging.

The men trip grab the bat in one hand and yank Wakko forward, and he stumbles and falls. They pick him up by his ears and slap a cuff on him, and while Wakko continues to kick and squirm but not being able to access your toon powers is draining. Yakko is tired, but he refuses to quit now.

“Dot, run!” He shouts, but she looks like a deer in the headlights, frozen and surrounded. She swings the mace and lets go, jumping up as the men stumble back from it, but halfway up they hit her with something. A rubber bullet? For a moment, he thinks she was actually shot, but there’s no blood even when she screams and drops to the ground.

“ _ **Stop!**_ ” Yakko and Wakko shout, but they cuff her before she even has a chance to get up, and they throw her over their shoulder.

“We got them,” Someone says into a walkie talkie. Yakko kicks them where it hurts, and scrambles to grab his sibs again, biting and scratching. “Permission to terminate?”

Something in Yakko _snaps,_ and suddenly he can’t think. The thoughts and world have gone into slow motion, images like flashes that he doesn’t have the time to decipher. He’s moving fast, but it feels so slow.

He doesn’t hear the answer. He’s running towards blue and red, and pink, and there’s a hand on his shoulder and he’s screaming their names and they’re all crying and there’s a pinch on his neck as something pierces through skin and then-

Nothing.

* * *

He wakes up with a scream on his lips and is enveloped into a hug before he’s fully conscious.

“It’s okay, I’m so sorry, it’s okay,” He knows that voice. Clarity is slow coming, but Yakko can sparse that out.

“Spielberg?” he manages. His mouth feels like it’s filled with cotton balls, and his vision comes into focus on a _much_ older Steven Spielberg.

“Yakko, I’m sorry,” he says. “I wanted them to keep you in the tower, but they were resolute. The best I could get was suspended animation,” He gestures to the room they’re in, and Yakko sees two toon sized tubes filled with some kind of liquid, with his siblings in them. They look different. Remodeled. He looks down at himself. The art style has changed. _They’ve_ changed. How?

“What...?” He can’t find the words. Not yet. They’re coming back to him slowly.

“It’s death...but not quite. I was hoping for a reboot. You guys are getting your show back!” he smiles at Yakko, like he expects Yakko to be overjoyed, but Yakko just stares.

_Suspended Animation. Death, but not quite._

He let his siblings get _this._

“I’m telling you, because I figured these two would take it better from you than me,” Spielberg points a thumb at Wakko and Dot. “I’ll wake them up now for your reunion.”

And Yakko wants to cry. He wants to rage. He wants to tell Steven, the execs, everyone, to stick it where the sun don’t shine Like _Hell_ is he doing their stupid reboot, he _hates_ them.

He doesn’t hate often, but he’s certain here.

“Will they remember...?” _Will they remember dying like **I** do_, he doesn’t say. Spielberg shrugs.

“Don’t know.”

_They will. Wakko is going to cry and Dot won’t be able to sleep for a week, and Yakko will hold them close and apologize a million times, and he’ll have to stop them from tearing the studio apart because he knows it’ll bring them right back here._

_They’ll remember._

But he doesn’t know that yet, so instead he says.

“So, how’s the reboot working?” As Spielberg turns on the machine to let Wakko and Dot out, and he pretends to listen as the director replies.


	2. The Dawn is Breaking, and I am Crumbling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yakko is awake. His siblings awaken, too. Through the thin veneer of calm that is fueled by the near 70 years of acting experience they have, they keep it together enough to meet the new CEO after filming.
> 
> She’s not what they’re expecting.

Yakko lets his face drop, just for a moment, when Spielberg turns away to mess with the controls and let his brother and sister out of the suspended animation tubes.

The whole room looks far too futuristic for only 22 years, Yakko thinks. The eerie glow from the tubes, a light blue, paints and eerie vibe about the metal interior. He can see the shadows in the corners of the room.

Wakko and Dot, at least, look healthy. As much as the redesign weirded him out, change of art style and all, he has to admit they kept the general feeling of their characters. Dot still has her flower and dress, Wakko still has his sweater and cap. The studio kept them relatively the same, though Yakko can’t help but play with the bit of hair sticking up between his ears, unused to it. He feels the lines are a bit sharper. Maybe this is how modern animation looks like?

The liquid starts to drain, and the polite grin is back on Yakko’s face by the time Spielberg turns around, even though his hands are shaking behind his back and he’s terrified by how this is going to turn out.

Dot’s tube opens first, and she’s picked up by metal arms and set down on the ground, and Yakko is at her side before he registers moving. She doesn’t look lucid yet, eyes open but unseeing, but she blinks a few times and he sees the spark of recognition soon enough.

“Yakko?” Her voice is so small.

“Hey,” he smiles at her, even though it’s a bit pained, and he hugs her close. She clings to him and shakes, but the sound of Wakko’s pod opening breaks them apart, because Yakko turns to see his little brother.

Wakko starts to cry the moment he becomes conscious, and Yakko rushes to his side because he _understands,_ but they don’t have time to cry right now. 

Not with executives watching. Not with the situation they’re in.

“Hey, hey, hey, bud, don’t cry, it’s okay,” Dot is right behind him, clutching him by the tail as if its a leash. Only his siblings are supposed to be allowed to grab his tail like that, and Yakko clearly remembers that night, when the men in the task force grabbed him by it and yanked hard enough to bruise. He shivers in memory. Wakko sniffles, as Yakko wipes his tears.

“We’re getting a reboot,” He says, loud enough for Spielberg to hear. Dot and Wakko glance at the man, who gives them a thumbs up. They wave back.

“We have to put on a brave face,” Yakko then whispers. “They don’t expect us to be sad. It’s just like acting, okay? Just for a day, and once we’re back alone in the tower, you can let it out,” he hates that he has to tell them this, that he has to ask they hide it away. He wants nothing more than to let them rage and cry and scream, because they have every right to want to.

But, because they did this in 1993, when all Yakko wanted to do was ruin Plotz, when all they wanted to do was feel the sun on their fur and play without contracts or cartoons, because they sucked it up and signed contracts and did the work then, they can do it now.

They all take a deep breath. Wakko rubs the tears out of his eyes.

They stand in a row, familiar grins on their faces.

“I think it’s time for Animaniacs, don’t you?” Yakko tells Spielberg, and he is both relieved and annoyed by the way Spielberg smiles and nods.

“You bet it is!” Dot agrees, and Wakko nods his head, tongue flopping about comically.

They play their roles well, don’t they?

* * *

The first episode goes well. Yakko helps move things along with the songs, all ad-libbed. The new CEO is a curveball, and when she looks at him he can feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. There’s something off about her, something he can’t quite put his finger on, that makes her dangerous. He internally panics at how casual Wakko and Dot are around her. Maybe it’s just him?

In the break between the second half of their debut, where Pinky and the Brain’s return plays, she tells him that she wants a meeting with the three of them once they’ve looked over their contracts.

Yakko swallows the instinct to run and nods in reply.

They also, during the break between the two segments of their return, meet up with the grim reaper, who holds out their joint contract.

“Anything to keep us away from you, huh _Daddoo_?” He grins up at the reaper, and said personification of death cringes away from them.

“Yes-now read it over and sign it already,” The accent from this guy never gets old. Yakko snatches the document from boney fingers, reading it over. It doesn’t seem any different. A higher paycut, actually, which is nice. He supposes already being a celebrity helps with that. The finale clause, though, that bothers him

_Upon the end of the Reboot, the Warners will become property of Death._

“Yeah, no,” he points to the clause. “I don’t think you actually want us, and I’m pretty sure making people property has been illegal for a while now,” Death seems surprised by the clause, himself. He glances at it, and then his eyes dart towards the CEO’s office. Yakko’s eyes narrow.

“Of course,” Yakko watches him revise it, the reaper mumbling under his breath about _That crafty woman_ , and once that’s been taken out he lets Wakko and Dot sign it with him.

“Your As still look like 2s,” Yakko whispers conspiratorially to Wakko, and he giggles.

Back to the show.

* * *

The office building is quiet when they go in to meet with the new CEO. He doesn’t actually know her name. Nora? Norita? He doesn’t remember her introducing herself, so maybe that’s just for the mysterious factor.

“Leave the talking to me this time, sibs,” he whispers to them as the elevator dings to their floor. They must hear something in his voice, because they don’t argue.

The CEO is at her desk when they arrive, scrolling through her tablet while nodding along to a call she’s in. Her eyes dart sharply to the Warners, and Yakko pushes his sibs behind him.

“Mhmm, yes, that’s very interesting. Please hold,” She tells the person on the line, setting her tablet down and pressing a button on her earpiece. She takes it out and sets it down on the desk, standing up. Her heels make her loom, ever taller, over them, and her eyes are dark.

“Now, I know of your history. Plotz spoke of you extensively, and I had an assistant watch your previous show incarnation several times. I know how you work, your strengths and weaknesses, and your fears,” She regards them coolly, and Yakko stands tall, despite the ever mounting panic.

“You were brought back because Spielberg wanted you, and keeping him ingratiated to the studio is more profitable than the property damage you cause with your antics,” Every sentence is said with calculated precision. Every sentence is pointed, like the end of a knife

Yakko isn’t that aggressive, but Dot certainly is. He can feel her getting angry. Even Wakko, the calmest of the three when it comes to dealing with things, is becoming annoyed with the CEO's attitude. That’s dangerous. He grips their hands in his tight, squeezing to remind them that they have to be quiet.

“You three, of course, will bring us money, but you’re also expensive to keep around. The nightmare that will be the publicity scandal should you come out with what happened to you these past 22 years would be...difficult to handle. So, I think it’s in your best interests to keep quiet,” She crosses her arms over her chest, awaiting the challenge.

Yakko can see it, so he doesn't react. His siblings, on the other hand, don't quite understand the position they're in.

“Like Hell we’ll keep quiet!” Dot jumps out in front of Yakko before he can stop her, stomping over to the CEO with a glare and a sharp toothed scowl on her face. “I’ll make sure the whole _world_ knows about what you did to us!”

“Yeah!” Wakko runs over, mallet in hand. “What are you gonna do if we blab, huh?”

She’s got them lifted in the air by their tails before they can blink, gripping them tightly. Yakko jumps, staring at her with wide eyes, and Dot and Wakko are frozen in shock for a moment, before they start trying to escape. Dot is shouting obscenities. Wakko keeps trying to hit her with his mallet, but it isn't long enough. She holds them far enough away from her body that they can't reach her.

Yakko is frozen. This is the worst case scenario.

“None of your episodes have aired yet,” She reminds them. “I could halt production here. Spielberg is important, but we could smooth things over with him with the right words. He’s terribly sentimental. And while the fans would be upset about this reboot’s cancellation, we could cite many things that would have the Warner Bros. studio come out as if we were doing what was best for the show,” She glances between the two younger toons, and then to Yakko.

“And your next ending won’t be as peaceful. We have _Dip,_ here, and we aren’t afraid to use it. That’s how we get rid of toons that meet our standards, after all,” She grins, then, and Yakko freezes.

They use Dip casually? Here? That-that’s _murder._ And they’ll do that to baby toons, ones who haven’t even gotten their footing in this world. Yakko thinks he’s going to be sick.

“So, you have one option. Comply,” She shakes Wakko and Dot in her grip, stunning them out of their scrambling to escape. “I’ve made things efficient here, and I won’t have that changed by toons whose character sheets should have been burned in the 1930s,” Wakko and Dot flinch, and Yakko clenches his fists.

“Now,” She takes a breath, “Are you going to quit wasting my time? Because I have about ten calls waiting that are more important than you three,” She smiles at Yakko, and it’s one that makes him shiver again. 

“Well? Don’t try for bravado. I know you’re nothing without your words.”

And Yakko _hates_ that, and he’s terrified, but she’s got his siblings held tight in her arms, by their tails, and she’s threatening them with murder, and it’s all too reminiscent to that night, where he let his siblings down.

Not again.

He pounces, teeth bared, and digs them into her shoulder, knocking her to the ground. His teeth breaks through her nice suit coat and shirt and through skin, and she drops his sibs and kicks him with her sharp heel, knocking him back. He rolls across the floor before standing, spitting out fabric and the taste of her, wiping his mouth. He’s trembling. Wakko and Dot look shocked. 

He’s never done that before.

“Here’s something you don’t know,” he spits, as she stands, incensed. “No one’s threatened us with Dip before. So, maybe I’m not as useless without my words as you think,” She narrows her eyes, and regards him with...something indiscernible.

“You don’t touch them,” he growls it out. They aren’t fully animals and they aren’t fully human, so they’ve got the sharp canines that put a household dog to shame and enough cognizance to know when to use them.

“You got a problem with us, you leave them out of it. This is just you and me, got it?” He bares his teeth, a reminder of what he can do. The smell of blood makes him want to throw up, and that’s with him trying not to register the taste.

“Yakko,” Dot tries, but Wakko shushes her. It’s a standoff, and Yakko is more terrified than brave but he doesn’t blink, doesn’t breathe, just lets the blood drip from his teeth as she holds a hand to her bleeding shoulder.

“This meeting is over,” The CEO says, finally. “I trust you can see yourselves out.”

It’s not a concession, but it is something different than the high and mighty attitude she had before. Maybe she’s realizing that all Yakko has to lose is them, his siblings, and that means that death means nothing to him.

Hard to beat someone who’s not so easily manipulated by fame and fortune or threats, is it?

The walk back to the tower is silent. Dot holds his hand, leaning against him, and Wakko clutches his pant leg. They both seem to still be in a state of disbelief.

“They have _Dip_ now,” Dot whispers, incredulous, horrified.

“They aren’t gonna play anymore,” Wakko agrees, with the same amount of horror. He’s shaking.

Yakko holds them tight, as best he can, and they go home.

* * *

The first thing he does when they get to the water tower is direct Wakko to the kitchen and Dot to her dressing room area.

“Eat and get ready for bed,” He says, weary and exhausted. Wakko’s blood sugar levels need to steady out, and Dot needs something to keep her mind off of what happened. Directing them to something that they can lose themselves in the motions of is easy. He knows them too well.

They don’t protest, nodding.

He goes to the sink and gargles water, over and over, until he stops spitting out pink. He brushes his teeth six times. Scrubs his tongue raw. Washes his face. Doesn’t look at himself in the mirror until he’s sure he won’t see that dark red anywhere.

He doesn’t regret his actions, but he certainly isn’t proud of them. 

When he comes out of the bathroom, their bunk bed has been made a large king size one, and Wakko and Dot are waiting for him. He quickly slips into some pajama pants and heads over to them, getting in the middle so they can snuggle up against him.

“Yakko?” Dot starts, and he can feel the fire in the back of her throat. “Don’t-Don’t you _ever_ say that. That people can do bad stuff to you, if they keep us safe. You did it before and you did it now and I can’t-we’re a _team_. We don’t _sacrifice_ each other-we can’t-you can’t _do that_ to us,” Ever word is pushed out, like she has trouble knowing that she has to say it. 

“You’re everything to us too,” She finally says, halfway to tears, and Yakko can’t swallow the lump in his throat to reply.

“ _Stay_ ,” Wakko pleads. “You can’t give yourself up for us. You have to stay,” A man of few words, and yet they strike Yakko right in the chest, as he holds them tight.

He rubs their backs until they’re almost asleep, staring at the glow in the dark star stickers on the ceiling.

“I’ll try,” he mumbles, and it’s not as much of a promise as it is a hope, but they’re too close to sleep to try arguing.

When he finally drifts off, he doesn’t dream at all.


End file.
